linen as a patch material

[doulos]

Anybody using linen as a patch material. Ive used pillow ticking for years but have always looked for something new.
If you have. Where did you get it? Compare your experience to other patch fabrics. I ask because I saw some at Joanne fabrics and was curious.

[SCLoyalist]

I'm experimenting with some JoAnn Fabric Linen now.   In a range outing last week, at 25 and 50 yd targets, it loaded much easier and shot as tight a group as the pillow ticking I usually use.  Tomorrow, I'm going to try it at 100 yds.   The stuff I bought was  stock no 400069026704, 100 pct linen.   My calipers say it's .015" thick, but will compress down to about .012".   I tried my usual olive oil based lube on it, and it didn't work worth a hoot.   Spit lubed, it worked great.   The moral to the story is you'll have to experiment and see what   works for you and your gun,or even if it works.    JoAnn's also sells 70pct linen, 30 pct rayon, which I had some scraps of and it worked really good, in another rifle, but for now I'd rather try to find a pure linen solution.

[Kermit]

Stay away from rayon. Melts, ya know.

I started using linen when I had made a waistcoat and breeches from artist's linen canvas. Since there were scraps, and I'm too much a Scot to toss good stuff, I tried it. Washed and dried it measures around .010-.012 or so. And spit seems to work best. Ballistol isn't bad, just messy. Pre-cut and pre-lubed and squoooooze out good it's okay too. Haven't tried any of the miracle lubes or phantasmagoric recipes with linen.

Linen canvas can be got online from places like Blick. Looks spendy, but the stuff is often 72"wide, and a yard makes a LOT of patches. Some folks balk at the cost of Swiss powder too.  If you are reluctant to buy online without measuring, most jobbers will clip a sample for you to mic and even try. If you find it in a fabric or art supply store, take your mic with you for a test. When you wash linen, have your favorite sewing machcine operator zig-zag the cut edges before washing or you have a raveling problem.

[Bull Shannon]

The linen I have seen in the stores as well as what was used to make my 1830's style shirt seems too loose a weave to make good patching material.  From what is available here locally, there are tow different types of "ticking".  One is pillow ticking and measure barely .010, the other is mattress ticking, which is a nice tight weave that measures .018 thick.  It makes excellent patching cloth and readily soaks up plenty of lube.  If you can't find a tightly woven, 100% linen cloth then I suggest you see if your local fabric store has these two types of ticking material and see for yourself the difference.

[Scout]

I had some linen leftover from a few CW reenactment shirts my sister-in-law made for my brother and me in the early 1990s. I used it in a .36 flint with good results, never tried it in anything bigger.
I still like ticking better.

[Long John]

I read somewhere, I don't remember where, that linen is more abrasive than cotton and thus would be expected to wear out a barrel faster than cotton would.  That might be an issue for some one like Roger F.

I shot linen patching for several years but I found that the weave was not as tight as the denim I use now.  The denim gives me better groups even if it is less period correct.

Best Regards,

John Cholin

[Daryl]

I tired and used up a swatch of linen back in the 70's that was thick enough.  The source for it dried up and I switched to denim as well as the thicker tickings, both of which have worked well ever since.

[Dphariss]

Anybody using linen as a patch material. Ive used pillow ticking for years but have always looked for something new.
If you have. Where did you get it? Compare your experience to other patch fabrics. I ask because I saw some at Joanne fabrics and was curious.

Linen was the standard until probably the 20th c. Much of the common than cotton in the 18th c.
I have been seeing some very weak fabrics coming from China and have some Linen I will be testing.
Dan

[JBlk]

I have used linen as patch material for many years.A good source of cheap linen is at the local auctions.,The linen is usually tablecloths or napkins from yesteryear.I usually cut a large square of a couple of feet and then soak it in the hot patch lube that I am experimenting with.I use an old cast iron skillet for this purpose which has served me well.

[Roger B]

What a coincidence!  I had been having trouble getting a new barrel to give decent groups, when I ran into an old pistol shooter from our club who put me onto Belgian linen.  He gave me some strips of the 6 oz stuff and the barrel really likes it.  Belgian linen is used as artist's canvas and is available in bulk from Utrecht Art Supply on line  and at their retail stores.  You would obviously want the unprimed fabric.  It has a real "tooth" to it and seems to seal the bore well despite being a fairly open weave.  It has not blown out in either my .54 or .45 though the .54 doesn't seem to care for it group wise.  Cheap it ain't, so I don't think I would use it as a standard patch material, but it seems to be useful as a go to fabric for problem barrels.  I don't doubt that it polishes the bore a bit, but I had already Scotchbrited this one a couple of times, so I don't think that was the reason it worked. It just immediately started to group. I do remember some old timers back in the early '70s who talked about using Irish linen to "shoot in" new barrels of the day.  You expected Douglas, GRRW, and Large barrels to eat patches for a hundred or so shots back in the days before barrels were "ball burnished with match grade accuracy" out of the box.
Roger B.